10 TOP TIPS

to help you achieve your bream badge...

2 Prebait 1 Look for bigger bubbles

Bream often fizz and can easily be confused with tench or carp in the swim. The surface bubbles from a shoal of feeding bream will actually be larger to those from carp and tench.

If you’re looking to put together a big haul, prebaiting will definitely stack the odds in your favour. You don’t have to spend a fortune doing this, but introduce a mixture of groundbait, pellets and corn a few evenings prior to your session.

3 Clip up for accuracy

To ensure you land a feeder on the exact same spot every cast, trap your mainline under the reel’s line clip and line up your cast with a permanent far- bank marker. As long as you cast with the required force, the rig will then land in the same place and you can gradually build up the bed of bait as the session progresses.

4 Avoid weedy areas

Bream love open water, so look for large clear areas and lay down a decent bed of feed to stop them in their tracks. This makes locating them easy on many waters, as you can largely ignore any weedy areas of the lake.

5 Experiment with hooklength

Start the session with a hooklength of 24in30in and keep adjusting it. If the fish are really having it, shorten the rig to just a few inches. Alternatively, if you are missing bites, be prepared to go as long as 4ft.

6 Don’t strike at little taps

Bream have a large body shape and when swimming tightly together they can give you lots of false indications. Resist the temptation to strike at little flickers or taps and instead wait for your tip to pull round and hold in place.

7 Keep the bait still

If you’re pole fishing for bream, don’t be afraid to fish overdepth by as much as 9in. Bream prefer a stationary bait and by fishing overdepth and using a pole support you can ensure your hookbait remains dead still.

8 Pick the right baits

On commercial fisheries, pellets and corn for bream are pretty much unbeatable and will outfish most other baits. Try hair- rigging 6mm expanders and then trap the bait on the hair with a small plastic boilie stop.

9 Use dark groundbait

Bream can be spooky over a bed of light coloured groundbait. Dark brown and black mixes will blend in much better over the lakebed and encourage the fish to feed more confidently.

10 Add molasses

There are few attractors more effective for big bream than molasses. Add it liberally to your groundbait to draw in the fish.